Demise of teen bands lets rock replace pop at the top of the album charts

Sales of rock albums have overtaken pop for the first time, with increasing numbers of teenagers rejecting "manufactured" chart groups.

Album sales for rock acts including Coldplay and Nirvana rose by 3 percentage points in 2002 to 31 per cent of all music sales, the highest level for a decade. In the same period, pop album sales fell by 1.3 percentage points to claim a 30.3 per cent share.

The decline indicated that albums by Robbie Williams and Pink, which sold well, failed to make up for the declining fortunes of "teen pop". Experts said the figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which started its sales analysis by genre 10 years ago, proved that young people were moving towards "serious guitar" music at an earlier age.

Alex Needham, associate editor of NME, said: "You only need to look at the audiences at gigs and festivals – fans are getting much younger." The successful marketing of acts such as Coldplay, the Strokes and the White Stripes had also helped. He said thatrock sales were further boosted by the appeal of Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana who committed suicide in 1994.

The rock sector also benefited from an "excellent year" for Metal, increasing its share to 7.6 per cent with hits from the Canadian band Nickelback and the Foo Fighters alongside newcomers Hundred Reasons and Lostprophets.

The "adult orientated" sub-genre of rock sales saw its market share rise to 9.3 per cent with strong releases from David Gray, Rod Stewart and Bruce Springsteen.

The pop sector benefited from releases by Robbie Williams, Pink, Enrique Iglesias and Blue – all of which sold more than a million copies.

But sales of "teen" pop albums fell by 2.4 percentage points to 4.9 per cent, suggesting that the bubble may have burst for manufactured pop groups.

Rap and hip-hop increased share of the album market, up nearly one point in the past year. Dance and R&B's position dropped in both the singles and album markets in 2002.

Researchers from the BPI, which analyses sales of the top 10,000 albums and top 1,000 singles of the year, acknowledged that some titles do not easily fit into one genre, and that artists could have a "significant effect" on results, depending on which category they are placed in.